


Water Cooler

by fantasyportal



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Betting, Denial, First Kiss, Fluff, Keith owns a motorcycle, Klance betting, M/M, Office AU, One Shot, Pidge is the best, Pining, Small shallura, Voltron, Water Fight, Water cooler, klance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-24
Updated: 2017-05-24
Packaged: 2018-11-04 12:14:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10990743
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fantasyportal/pseuds/fantasyportal
Summary: If it hadn't been for the office's local water cooler, Lance would have never gone out with Keith and Pidge would have never won $40 dollars from a bet...





	Water Cooler

Lance stared at the guy in amazement. He was over by the office’s water cooler. It had the standard two options: hot or cold. Normally people would choose the cold option, and if they choose the hot option, they would then go back to their office to make tea. But this guy just filled up his cup with hot water and then drank it plain. No tea or hot chocolate mix. Just plain boiling hot water.

Wasn’t this guy's throat burning? Lance had discovered on accident that the hot water burned, especially on direct contact with skin. This guy must have had no feeling as he drunk the water with a blank face.

The guy was Keith. He absolutely hated Keith. Keith with the leather jacket and the motorcycle, which didn’t make him look cool at all. Keith was his rival. He was always did a little better than Lance. Beside Keith looked like he walked out from the eighties with his mullet. Mullets were the world's worst haircut. They were not cute, adorable, or overbearing attractive, because they were absolutely hideous.

“You're staring Lance.”

“Ahh! Pidge where did you come from?” Lance said in surprise.

“I been watching you stare at Keith for the past 5 doboshes,” came a snappy reply.

“Have not,” Lance replied indignantly.

Wordlessly Pidge held out her phone. The phone showed a 5 dobosh video of Lance staring at Keith. Then she whispered, “Blackmail material.”

“You little gremlin! Also haven't you noticed that this guy is only drinking the hot water?”

“He’s drinking water. Big deal, Lance. Look he’s breathing.”

“He is drinking plain hot water. That stuff burns.”

“Okay, I get it. You have a crush on him. Now go talk to him.”

“I DO NOT! He's like my rival and he has mullet.”

“Last week you said it was an ‘adorably cute stupid mullet’.”

“That never happened.”

“Sure.”

“I DO NOT HAVE A CRUSH ON HIM!” Lance yelled gaining the attention of everyone in the office.

Everyone stared at him for a solid five ticks, before turning back to their work.

“What is all this yelling about?” Lance turned around to find their boss. Shiro stood behind him. He was holding a mug that read, “#1 Space Dad”. It was given to him as a joke gift from the crew of the office.

“Nothing,” Lance muttered before walking away. He couldn’t believe Pidge thought he had a crush on Keith, just because he was slightly attractive. Also maybe slightly adorable, especially when he was super focusing on his work. Keith would stick a little bit of his tongue out, while concentrating and it was so cute, but it's not like Lance would know, because he totally doesn’t stare at Keith.

Shiro turned to Pidge. “Lance has a crush,” Pidge offered as an explanation.

“On Keith?”

“Yep,” Pidge said.

“Is he still in denial?”

“Yep.”

“So do you think by the end of the week?”

“I’m giving it three quintants,”

“Ten dollars says one week,” Hunk said walking over to them.

“Fine. I say three quintants,” Pidge said.

“It will probably be more like two weeks. Relationships take time.” Shiro said. He glanced over at Lance, who was staring at Keith. “But in their case, I will say a week and a half.”

“More like five quintants,” Allura said.

“Where did you come from? This conversation started between Pidge and me. How did you guys all join?”

“Shiro, anything concerning Keith and Lance involves everyone. Also I am saying four quintants,” Coran said.

Shiro sighed before saying, “Okay. It's a deal then.”

Everyone nodded and shook hands.

“So, who wants to watch a five dobosh video of Lance staring at Keith?”

* * *

 

“He’s doing it again.”

“You're doing it again, Lance. You’ve been staring at him for a couple doboshes,” Pidge replied.

“Have not! Besides he’s drinking plain hot water.”

“Just go talk to him already,” Pidge whisper yelled before shoving Lance towards Keith.

Lance stumbled trying to avoid falling. He looks up to see Keith giving him a questioning glance.

“You're doing it wrong,” Lance blurted out before he could stop himself. Lance hated how Keith made his mind a ball of mush. Something about him was just so distracting that he couldn’t think straight around Keith.

“What?” Keith blankly asked.

“The water it’s plain.”

“I know,” Keith replied having no idea where the conversation was going.

“You have to put stuff in hot water, otherwise it is boring.”

“Says who?” Keith fired back as he started to feel riled up. He put his cup down on a nearby cabinet.

“Umm… people. Yeah, people say that,” Lance said as he took a step towards Keith.

“Well I don’t,” Keith said while leaning forward

“Keith leaned forward to far and he tried to grab onto Lance before he hit the floor. Lance lost his balance and fell onto the floor, bring Keith down with him.

Lance stared, Keith’s face was inch from his own. Lance had never noticed how pretty Keith's eyes were before. The light reflected off them perfectly showing the specks of purple. The indigo coloring shined like pools of water reflecting light. Why were his eyes so pretty?

“Guys, please try to keep your hands off each other,” Shiro said as he approached them. Instantly Lance and Keith were ten feet away from each other.

“It wasn’t like that,” Lance said trying to defend himself. While, Keith stood in the corner with his face too red to speak.

“Sure,” Shiro said with a smile. “Also Lance, I think you broke Keith. Now get back to work.” Shiro walked away and went over towards Pidge.

“They are hopeless. You have pictures right?”

“Of course. I am offended you even had to ask,” Pidge replied with a grin.

“I want to see,” Hunk said excitedly as he popped up from nowhere.

“Me too,” Coran and Allura said as they came from behind Hunk.

“Why are you guys here?” Shiro exclaimed trying to figure out how they kept coming into the conversation every time he and Pidge were talking about Lance and Keith.

“Like I said before, anything concerning Keith and Lance involves everyone,” Coran said.

“Okay, everyone shut up and look at these pictures,” Pidge yelled at the group.

“Pidge, I’m your boss, you can't ju-,” Shiro said.

Pidge turned around to give Shiro a death glare. “Do you want to see the picture or not?”

“I’ll be silent,” Shiro squeaked out.

* * *

 

“Lance, Keith can you guys stay late tonight and tomorrow? We need to finish the project for the deadline coming up,” Shiro said as he approached to the pair.

“Sure,” Keith said nonchalantly.

“I suppose I can stay with mullet to help finish the project,” Lance said while, Keith glared at Lance.

“Thanks guys. And no fighting.”

“Yeah Keith.”

“Lance,” Shiro said warningly.

“Fine,” Lance muttered and then walked away back to his desk.

* * *

 

Lance sighed as he finished; he took his fingers off the keyboard. His brain was mentally dead and he was counting down the doboshes till he could be in his bed. Keith was over at his desk, hard at work. He was typing at a speed that could be compared to a pack of yalmors on a hot day.

Lance would never stay it out loud, but he kind of admired how focused Keith could be. It also gave him a chance to check up on his rival, without Keith noticing.

Keith could feel Lance staring at him. He was tempted to turn around and ask him to stop. Somehow Keith felt unable to move from his position. So he continued to work. A couple doboshes later, he finished. He leaned back in his chair to relax for a couple ticks before making his way over to the water cooler. Keith planned on grabbing a quick drink before making his way home.

Lance peered up to find Keith over by the water cooler. He was sipping the hot water, again. Lance soon found himself distracted by Keith’s mullet again. Mullet’s were an absolute fashion disaster, but somehow Keith made it work. Keith made everything work and he was just so…

Lance’s thought was broken at the sight of Keith waving his arm in front of his face to try and break his stare.

“What are you looking at?”

“You,” Lance blurted out. Keiths face flashed red as Lance realized what he said.

“I meant I was looking at your strange drink preference,” Lance found himself walking over to the water cooler. He grabbed a cup and filled it up with hot water. He cautiously took a sip and the quickly put the cup down.

His eyes flashed and his face turned red. “It burns!” he yelled.

Keith couldn’t stop himself for laughing at his coworker’s strange behavior. Lance managed to settle down after drink ten cups of cold water.

Glaring at Keith he asked, “What are you laughing at, Mullet?”

“Nothing,”

“Well, I will give you something to laugh at,” Lance said. Before he had time to think he grabbed his cup of water and dumped it on Keith.

Time froze as Keith stopped smiling and stared at Lance in shock. Lance was frozen in complete disbelief of what he had just done.

“Drip, drip,” broke the silence and Keith unfroze and he refused to make eye contact with Lance. He grabbed his back and started towards the door.

“KEITH wait,” Lance yelled. His words turned into a whisper as the office door slammed shut. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. You hate me now. I am so stupid. This is all my fault. I am so sorry.” Tears were streaming down his face as he broke down. He flopped to the floor feeling lifeless. Tears streamed down his face, he felt broken. Like a part of him was lost never to be found.

When he showed up on Pidge’s doorstep in tears. She didn’t laugh, she just guided him inside. So that things might just be okay.

* * *

 

“I can’t do it.”

“Sure you can,” Pidge said helpfully.

“He must hate me. No, he has to hate me.”

“Just ‘man up’ already.”

Lance moaned as Pidge started dragging him out the door. “I don’t wanna go.” Pidge forced Lance into the car, before driving towards work. When the car finally reached the office, Pidge turned to face Lance.

“Look, I know you don’t want to go in there, but you can’t avoid him forever.”

“But I ca-”

“You are not going to die!” Pidge yelled cutting Lance off. “You are going to be fine. Stop worrying about yourself and worry about how Keith feels. He is probably confused and he probably think you hate him.”

“But I don’t hate him.”

“But does he know that. No, now go in there and get him.” Pidge pushed Lance out of car.

Once Lance enters the office Pidge whispered, “Today's the third day. I want results. Shiro is going down.”

* * *

 

“He’s avoiding me.”

“You are hiding behind my desk.”

“I am just trying to find the best time to approach him.”

“You know I have binoculars if you need them.”

“What?”

“To help you spy on him.”

“I am not spying on him.”

“Lance, we believe in you.” Lance turned around to find Shiro, Hunk, Allura and Coran standing behind him.

“You told them,” Lance said feeling betrayed.

“No, we watch the security footage. We were hoping you guys were doing something else.”

“What?!”

“Don’t worry about.”

* * *

 

It’s just the two of us. I can talk to him. No one is watching. I can do this. I have put it off all quintant. No more, five more doboshes and then I will talk to him. Ugh. I can’t do this. I’ll just type this paragraph and then I will do it.

Lance had been arguing with himself for the past varga. Everyone, but Keith had left the building. He was almost done with his work and was almost ready to leave. But he couldn’t let this opportunity pass up.

Why do I care so much? It’s just Keith, no one cares about how Keith feels. I don’t need to say sorry. But I do, I can’t have him hate. Why do I care so much? Because it’s Keith and I just want him to like me. But not like like me, because that would be weird... I mean it wouldn’t be that weird. Maybe it would be kind of nice… But I don’t like Keith. I mean he is kind of cute with his mullet and all… He’s smart and makes adorably snappy comments. Wait… It sounds like I have a cru- Oh quiznack! He hates me and I… like him.

It appeared that Keith was basically done. He was gathering all things and was putting them into piles. Finally he stood up and started to the door.

Lance was considering running into the forest and living in the wild. Then he would never see Keith again. Never see his stupidly cute mullet.

Lance was ready to spend another ten doboshes debating his life, but Keith was heading towards the exit. Before Lance had finished making his plan, he called out to Keith.

Keith paused as if he was tempted to stop, but he soon resumed his fast pace. Lance felt the world shaking as Keith continued walking. He needed to talk to him. He needed to burst. To explode. He needed everything to be okay.

So he ran. Faster than he ever had. Faster than the times in middle school when he annoyed the school bully too many times. He ran too fast.

Crash. He slammed into Keith knocking them both into the water cooler. Keith yelped out in surprise, before angrily turning to Lance. “What was that for?”

“I wanted to apologize for yesterday.”

“Okay you apologized, now get off of me so I can leave.”

Lance shakily got up on his feet. “Wait.”

“What do you want?” Keith was glaring at him. Lance felt weak, his stomach was jittery. It was a nervous ball of energy fueled on the sugary coffee he had for lunch.

“Umm… I didn’t mean to dump the water on you. And I don’t hate you.” Lance snuck a glance at Keith.

“I don’t hate you either,” Keith said desperately trying to leave. He turned around to start walking.

“This is stupid. I’m so stupid. Urgh, but I kinda sort of like you. I know you don’t feel the same, but I guess I just needed to say it. I hope you can forgive me. I’m sorry, so incredibly sorry and I am going to go cry now,” Lance blurted out. The nervous feelings drifted away, leaving behind dread. Lance felt dead. The only thing keeping him alive was the tiny sense of relief.

Keith stopped. He stared. His brain was short circuiting. Behind his emotionless face he had been heartbroken from yesterday’s incident. He didn’t know if his heart could handle all this emotional trauma.

Now Lance was on the floor waiting for him to leave so he could cry his heart out. Lance was sad because of him. He didn’t think he could blame this all on Lance now. It was his fault for being so cold. It was his fault and he owed it to Lance and to himself to make things all right.

“I like you too.”

“What?!” Lance wondered if Life had taken pity on him and sent him straight to heaven where his wildest dreams were real.

“I thought you hated me, because of yesterday. And you always seemed to act so mean towards me...” Keith trailed off.

“Oh,” Lance was speechless. “So umm… Do you want to… You know… Get lunch tomorrow?”

“Like a date?”

“If that's okay with you?”

“Yeah, that would be great, amazing,” Keith brain fumbled for words.

“So do you forgive me?” Lance asked nervously.

Keith paused looking at Lance. His face was full of hope and it was so adorable. Keith smirked an idea forming in his head. “Nope.”

Lance froze. He didn’t understand, Keith was smiling? After he had just turned down his apology.

Keith reached for a cup and filled it up with water. Lance eyes grew wide as he started to figure out what Keith’s plan was. Splash. Lance felt his water run down his hair, soaking him. He stared at Keith in shock.

“Now you are forgiven,” Keith said smirking.

“I guess I deserved that,” Lance admitted. Keith held out a hand Lance, who was still on the floor. Lance grabbed it pulling himself up. He then hugged Keith. Keith felt amazing, like he could do anything at that moment. He also felt wet.

“Your getting me wet.”

“Whose fault is that?”

“Yours.”

“Nope. I am perfectly innocent,” Lance said with a smirk. His face hurt from smiling, but he couldn’t stop. He lifted his gaze to Keith’s face. Keith met his gaze. As if someone was secretly telling both of them what to do at the same time, they both leaned in. Then they touched.

Lance was a romantic at heart. He had always imagined being wet from the rain as his partner pulled him in for a kiss. He never in his wildest dreams imagined kissing Keith Kogane after being soaking wet from having water dumped on him. Not that he minded, because was better than anything that had ever happened. Better than in middle school when he had his awkward first kiss with a girl and wouldn’t shut up about it for the entire week. Better than getting into the Garrison U and eating the going away meal that his mom cooked. Better than beating Keith, because Lance McLain had died and gone to heaven.

Keith felt like he was flying. Not in the cockpit, but magically suspended in mid-air, because this was magical. It was amazing. It was like the time he rode his motorbike for the first time and then swore to Shiro he went faster than light, except this was millions of times better. His heart fluttered propelling him further into the sky, till he reached the stars. When he finally need air to breathe in space, he crashed back down into earth. Where he landed in his wildest dream. He had flown to the furthest reaches of the galaxy in a couple ticks or was it doboshes, because he was pretty sure time didn’t make sense anymore.

“Dios mio,” Lance said when they broke apart.

“Yeah…” Keith followed up his brain still trying to process what happened.

Crash. Lance and Keith turned towards the sound. In the space that they worked, they had these dividers to make office cubes. The dividers were not that sturdy and could be tipped over when enough pressure was applied. Lance had found that out, just before he discovered that the hot water burned. When they turned they found Pidge holding out her phone, laying on top of Shiro and Hunk who had seemed to be holding her.

“Oops,” Pidge said. Keith and Lance jumped apart. “You guys dropped me,” she continued glaring at Shiro and Hunk.

“Umm… what are guys doing here?” Lance asked not sure if he wanted to know.

“So are you guys together?” Pidge pressed on as Shiro and Hunk picked themselves up.

Lance shot a questioning look at Keith, who nodded. Lance felt his heart soar. “Yeah, we are.”

“Ha, you guys all owe me ten dollars.”

“What!?” Keith and Lance shouted.

“We had a bet!” Pidge said rather proudly.

Coran begrudgingly handed Pidge ten dollars. “If only you had held off for another quintant.”

“You had a bet for when me and Keith would get together?”

“Keith, I thought we were buddies,” Shiro said as he handed Pidge ten dollars.

“I feel betrayed Shiro,” Keith said in disbelief, his eyebrow raised.

“We all knew it was going to happen. We were just tired of your tension,” Hunk said as he reached for his wallet.

“Hunk, my man, my buddy, I thought we were friends.”

“We are and I will be your best man at the wedding.” Keith might have just died at that the last statement. Allura handed her money over to Pidge.

“So Pidge, can we see the pictures?” she asked.

“Pictures!? This is outrageous. An invasion of privacy. I don’t do this to you guys,” Lance said.

“Remember when I first started dating Shay.”

“That's totally different.”

“I am so rich,” Pidge muttered to herself.

“Pictures?” Allura pressed again.

Pidge smiled evilly before saying, “Ten bucks.”

“Or I could dock ten from your pay,” Shiro said frustrated.

“Fine.”

“Wait, how much would you guys pay to get your own special pictures of me and Keith kissing,” Lance said a business plan forming.

“Lance!” Keith said horrified about what Lance just said. “We are not going to do that.”

“Aww,” Hunk cooed. Pidge was showing him the pictures.

“Why are you guys here again?”

“Pidge was positive she would win and wanted proof,’ Coran said.

“And pictures,” Pidge followed up.

“So did the project that we had to stay late for have the deadline or was that just an excuse?”

“That deadline was real and I hope you guys finished,” Shiro said.

“Yeah, we're done,” Keith said.

“Ok. Me and Allura are going to head out now. See you guys tomorrow and Pidge send me the pictures.”

“Yeah, see you tomorrow. Pidge send them to me as well,” Allura said as she and Shiro headed for the door.

The rest of the group paused for a moment. “You don’t think, that they are... you know…” Pidge said staring at the door.

“No way. Shiro would never… Actually he would,” Keith said fixing his eyes on the door.

“Payback!” Lance said excitedly.

“So… You guys want to make a bet,” Pidge said.

“Not after last time,” Coran said.

“Come on.”

“Nope I am leaving,” Hunk said. He headed to the door.

“I’m going to go home as well. These clothes are getting uncomfortable.”

“I will walk you towards your car,” Keith offered and they headed out the door.

Coran got up to leave, but Pidge held him back. “Wait they are going to come back.” A dobosh later Lance walked in.

“Pidge, I need a ride since you brought me here.”

“Didn’t you want to catch a ride with your boyfriend?” Lance face turned red. Coran snorted glad he stayed.

“I didn’t want to ride his motorcycle without a helmet.”

“Come on let's go.” Once inside the car Pidge turned to Lance. “I want to take the time to say, I told you so. Without me you would still be crying in your room.”

“Actually if it hadn’t been for the water cooler, I would never had been in a relationship with Keith.”

“I don’t think so; you guys were crushing hard, eventually it would have happened.”

“Pidge, you just better hope you never get a crush or start dating anyone,” Lance said as Pidge pulled up to his apartment.

“See you later Lance and I will send you the pictures,” Pidge said with a smirk.

Lance got out the car. He was tired, but so incredibly happy.

* * *

 

The next day at work Lance was at the weekly meeting. He was sitting next to Keith, under the table their hands were connected. Both of their faces were tinted red. He was counting down the ticks til the meeting ends. Afterwards it would be time for lunch, which was when his date was.

Shiro walked into the room and everyone pulled out their laptops and various papers. Shiro walked to the front of the room to the podium and turned on the projector. Everyone else started turning on their computer, revealing their new desktop background.

“Why is the picture of me and Keith kissing all your guys desktop backgrounds?” Lance asked, not that it was his background too. Keith’s face turned an even brighter shade of red.

“Hey, it’s my phone background too,” Pidge replied.

  


**Author's Note:**

> Well I hope you enjoyed it. Let me know if you see any grammar or spelling mistakes. This is also my first fic so it would be greatly appreciated if you gave me some feedback.  
> -Tal


End file.
